Literature Against Itself

Literary Ideas in Modern Society
The first and still one of the best critiques of post-1960s cultural radicalism, analyzing why and how the defenders of literature have gone wrong. “A wonderfully trenchant and illuminating inquiry.—Virginia Quarterly Review.
Since its first publication more than fifteen years ago, Literature Against Itself has achieved wide recognition as the first major critique of post-1960s cultural radicalism—and still, one of the best. In it, Gerald Graff argues that the reigning strategies for defending literature now end up by trivializing it, and he analyzes why and how they have gone wrong. He charges that our leading literary critics, whether they claim to be traditionalists or innovators, have taken positions that ultimately undermine the authority of art, literature, and criticism itself. "An extraordinarily important book, biting and cogent on every page."—Robert Boyers, Salmagundi. "In this recoil from the current anarchy of interpretation, Graff has affirmed that `literary thinking is inseparable from social and moral thinking."'—New York Times Book Review. "A wonderfully trenchant and illuminating inquiry… the shrewdness and cogency of his commentary are constantly arresting."—Virginia Quarterly Review.